The Pillow Cure

The previous Haystack reflection dealt with television sets running throughout the day into the night while not being watched. This phenomenon may be explained by the fact that the endless background noise from TV voices and sounds gives comfort to the lonely! In our society the number daily increases of those suffering from loneliness, yet being alone is a natural experience in this life. Sadly, so many were not instructed as children in the art of how to spend time alone. Aloneness, when balanced with some companionship, provides the necessary solitude for all creativity, as well as growth for our souls. Regrettably, we judge solitude as something bad since the most dreaded punishment society can inflict is solitary confinement! Yet in spite of this reality more people live alone today than ever before. A few freely choose this as a lifestyle, while for others it is caused by a spouse’s death, divorce or sadly the cards they’ve been dealt in this life. Life isn’t a game of chance but of choices—so choose to volunteer, join a book club, bridge group or some participation where one can feel community. Such choices though don’t always help those living that modern nightmare of feeling painfully alone even while surrounded by people. The good news is someone has created a solution to the agony of aloneness—the Lightmate. This creation of Francesca Lanzavecchia and her husband is a human-body-sized soft pillow similar to a white cloud. When hugged it emits a gentle glow and delicate heat. Francesca, an Italian student, said upon her arrival in Holland as part of a student design project that she “felt very little and tiny and lonely.” To alleviate this condition she created the first prototype of the Lightmate. After her return to Italy and marriage, she and her husband began to produce this life-size comforting pillow. Its success Francesca says is because, “We can have an empathic relationship only with things that resemble us.” Her life-size huggable pillow companions are available only by special order at around $3,500 each. All loners seriously should ponder and act upon these words of divine wisdom first spoken in the Garden of Eden: “It is not good for one to be alone.”

Edward Hays

Haysian haphazard thoughts on theinvisible and visible mysteries of life.